Solving the Pipeline Predictability Challenge
This is the third in a series of posts about the top five sales challenges companies are facing as reported by SiriusDecisions (if you missed the first two, check out Solving the New Rep Ramp-up Challenge and Solving the Sales Productivity Challenge).
How do I ensure that reps utilize a buyer-driven sales process to keep control of the business and bring predictability to the forecasting process?
SiriusDecisions found that a staggering two-thirds of organizations have not implemented a buyer-aligned sales process. That makes for a highly volatile forecast, creating a lot of uncertainty in the pipeline. Applying a buyer-driven approach, however, requires that you know who and where the buyers are.
You know which accounts you want to target, but finding expiring contracts and active initiatives can be difficult. BAO understands this problem and it’s the reason why we developed our Opportunity Identification(OppID™) service.
OppID™ provides you with a real-time, segmented view of your market (see image). With key buyer details – including who’s actively looking for a solution like yours right now; what the budget is for relevant, planned initiatives; where your competitors are installed and which of those accounts are up for renewal; and when buyers are planning to make a purchase (now, within six months, or longer) – you have a blueprint of the short- and long-term opportunities in your target market.
And not only will this help you improve sales predictability, it will also go a long way in helping with challenge #3, improving rep productivity by showing them where your potential buyers are – and where they aren’t so they don’t waste time chasing dead-end leads.
At BAO, we feel so strongly about the importance of buyer-aligned sales strategies that we invest in performing research to understand buying tends and other behaviors in key markets. We periodically make trend reports, based on the results of the research, available. Check out the trend reports for converged infrastructure, higher education, and the Fortune 1000.
Learn more about OppID, or contact us to learn how you can increase sales predictability by implementing a buyer-aligned process.
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